8.14 TALKING ABOUT THE PAST: The Imperfect Tense - Regular Verbs

The imperfect tense allows you to express events that happened repeatedly or habitually in the past or to describe ongoing actions in the past.

The preterite and the past perfect describe actions or events that have happened and were completed at that time. The imperfect tense describes something you used to do over a period of time (e.g. ‘I used to play football’ as opposed to ‘I played football’ or ‘I have played football’.

Let’s take a look at one example before we move on to the conjugations:

Hablábamos mucho en la escuela – We used to talk a lot in school(Yo) trabajaba en un banco en Nueva York – I used to work in a bank in New YorkElla me saludaba todos los días – She used to greet me every day (saludar – to greet)Él manejaba un camión – He used to drive a truck (manejar – to drive, to manage)Pasaban toda el día tomando vino – They used to spend the whole day drinking wineNo pudimos venir porque estábamos enfermos – We could not come because we were sick

(Yo) tenía un buen carro – I used to have a nice carTenías mucha suerte – You used to be very lucky (tener suerte – to be lucky, lit. ‘to have luck’)Él comía pasteles todos los días – He used to eat pastries every day. Ella nunca hacía tanto ejercicio – She never used to do so much exerciseLo entendíamos mejor – We used to understand it better(Ellos/Ellas) bebían mucho café – They used to drink a lot of coffee

THE imperfect and 'ir' verbs

VIVIR – To live

Yo vivía – I lived/used to liveTú vivías – You lived/used to live (informal)Usted vivía – You lived/used to live (formal)Él/Ella vivía – He/She lived/used to liveNosotros/Nosotras vivíamos – We lived/used to liveUstedes vivían – You lived/used to live (plural)Ellos/Ellas vivían – They lived/used to live

(Yo) vivía en España – I used to live in SpainDormías muy temprano, ¿verdad? – You used to sleep very early, right?Ella salía todos los días a caminar – She used to go out walking every daySalíamos juntos – We used to go out together (Ellos) vivían con sus abuelos – They used to live with their grandparents